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Religious liberty remains under assault · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:23
  Well, today is a day that we should be celebrating regularly.
• 0:28
  I mean, I think maybe we should be having parades in honor of the Bill of Rights.
• 0:35
  Today's the day.
• 0:36
  1791, December 15th.
• 0:40
  Today is the day the last state ratified those 10 amendments.
• 0:47
  10 out of the 12.
• 0:49
  And we're going to celebrate today.
• 0:51
  We're going to celebrate the Bill of Rights.
• 0:53
  Madison didn't think they were necessary.
• 0:55
  His good friend Jefferson absolutely thought they were necessary.
• 1:01
  There were individuals who refused to sign the Constitution, put their name to it, unless Madison agreed to produce a Bill of Rights.
• 1:12
  And we're going to celebrate it today.
• 1:15
  We've got a couple news stories that I want to get into that pertain to the Bill of Rights.
• 1:20
  And we're just going to wonder.
• 1:23
  What would things look like around here if we didn't have a Bill of Rights?
• 1:28
  What would America look like if we didn't have a Bill of Rights during the battle to ratify the U.S.
• 1:36
  Constitution?
• 1:37
  As I said, many Americans feared that the founding documents failed to list specific rights necessary to protect against the abuse of power.
• 1:51
  It was Jefferson who led the charge on this.
• 1:54
  He generally, by the way, approved of the Constitution, Jefferson did.
• 1:58
  But he put voice to the view when he wrote to Madison stating a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.
• 2:10
  And what no just government should refuse.
• 2:14
  Look, if if we're a just government, we shouldn't refuse this.
• 2:19
  And Madison generally agreed with him, but felt he just didn't think it was it was necessary.
• 2:26
  But to gain support for the Constitution, the Federalists, Madison and the gang agreed to add amendments that would protect personal liberties.
• 2:39
  Madison, of course, believed that it just, you know, he he considered a list of protected rights unnecessary, ultimately.
• 2:50
  He believed the Constitution as written gave the federal government no power whatsoever to violate the rights of citizens, to violate their liberties.
• 3:01
  Of course, if you're not giving them that right, uh who is to say they don't usurp it.
• 3:08
  And this is what this is the foresight of Jefferson.
• 3:14
  And it should have been the foresight of Madison because he wrote in the Federalists that that men aren't angels.
• 3:20
  And he Madison completely understood the um-angelic uh personality traits, as it were.
• 3:32
  He he was among the men who got the fact that the heart is evil and it can be twisted and turned towards evil.
• 3:43
  But yet he also believed that if specific rights weren't listed in the government or in the constitution to the federal government, then the federal government didn't have those rights.
• 3:53
  Jefferson realized just because they're not listed doesn't mean the government cannot uh usurp them, ascertain them, commandeer them for their own.
• 4:06
  Um so he worried that listing specific rights, Madison did.
• 4:14
  He worried that listing specific rights might imply that the government could limit rights not listed.
• 4:20
  So Madison took it to the other, the other extreme.
• 4:24
  Jefferson's saying if you don't uh, even though you don't have rights listed for the federal government, they can take those rights.
• 4:34
  And Madison believed that if we're gonna list rights and we leave some out, then the federal government would be able to uh limit those rights, the ones not listed.
• 4:47
  So we we have this this ongoing interesting debate back and forth, nevertheless, when the first Congress met in New York in 1789, Madison set out to craft a set of amendments.
• 5:04
  Here's what he said, and this this is an important statement.
• 5:09
  And if it if it were the opinion of our politicians today on either side of the aisle to approach the aisle with this mindset, and if it if this had been the mindset of of politicians throughout the ages, throughout the centuries here, throughout the decades, I mean, things might be different.
• 5:33
  Madison said if we can make the Constitution better in the opinion of those who are opposed to it without weakening its frame or bridging its usefulness and the judgment of those who are attached to it, we act the part of wise and liberal men to make such all alterations as shall produce the effect.
• 5:55
  So, hey, if we can make it better in the opinion of others without weakening it in our opinion, then let's do it.
• 6:05
  Let's let's make it better.
• 6:07
  Let's produce a bill of rights.
• 6:11
  So he did.
• 6:12
  He took a few colleagues and they sifted through scores of proposed amendments.
• 6:18
  They winnowed them down to just a brief list of 12.
• 6:23
  They I think they used as their primary source the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
• 6:29
  Uh, and um of course they they had other precedents that they used as guides, but it was the Virginia, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which became Madison of Virginian, by the way, it became his his uh his chief guide.
• 6:50
  So out of the 12 amendments that Congress sent to the states for approval, 10 of them were ratified.
• 6:57
  And it was today, December 15th, 1791, when Virginia of all of all the states, it was Virginia that became the last state needed for ratification, and it was Virginia ultimately that put the Bill of Rights into effect.
• 7:17
  The first Ten Amendments to the U.S.
• 7:19
  Constitution, preserving such cherished rights and liberties as the freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion.
• 7:30
  It's it's these amendments that lie at the heart of Americans' faith in limited government and the rule of law.
• 7:40
  It's these ten amendments, it's what they give us.
• 7:44
  They give us limited government and the rule of law.
• 7:49
  Now, you know, we can look around and we're going to today, and we can see where these um the uh I guess limited government, that whole idea, that whole concept is under assault, it's been under assault for decades.
• 8:09
  Uh, the rule of law is under assault.
• 8:12
  It's been under assault for decades.
• 8:14
  The laws are constantly being diminished by those in charge for whatever reason.
• 8:20
  They should want a rule of law.
• 8:23
  But when you are corrupted by power, and you'll do whatever you whatever possible to keep and maintain that power, then sometimes it might mean that you have to dispose of the rule of law here and there.
• 8:38
  I want to look at some cases today.
• 8:41
  I want to look at a case out of West Virginia, and I want to get to a case out of New York, and I also want to get to uh a situation in Virginia where the DOJ is suing Virginia and school districts there on violating rights.
• 9:01
  Ultimately, this is what it this is what it boils down to.
• 9:05
  Freedom of religion and freedom of speech, of course, are two of the biggies listed in the First Amendment.
• 9:14
  So a couple of days ago, this might have been two weeks ago now.
• 9:20
  The the West Virginia Board of Education reinstated a ban on religious exemption to school vaccine requirements after the state supreme court paused a lower court's ruling that had permitted the ban to go into place.
• 9:39
  So we're we're talking about religious expression and how that pertains to vaccine requirements.
• 9:49
  I mean, there are there are particular denominations, particular religions.
• 9:56
  I think this case uh specifically deals with the Amit.
• 10:01
  And where they said, hey, it's it's our religious belief.
• 10:05
  It's our deeply held religious practice.
• 10:07
  So we're not, we're not taking vaccines.
• 10:11
  And up until the the state supreme court pausing the lower court's ruling that permitted the ban.
• 10:20
  Um on this um, or that that the lower court ruling permitted the um religious exemption, and the state supreme court paused that.
• 10:33
  So now the West Virginia Board of Education has come along and they said, Well, you know, we're gonna we're gonna reinstate our ban on religious exemptions.
• 10:44
  We're not gonna allow them anymore.
• 10:47
  So the school board said in a statement that it was re-imposing its order to county boards of education not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws.
• 11:02
  Is this I mean, uh, should should we be allowing this?
• 11:08
  Should we be ignoring deeply held religious beliefs?
• 11:14
  A little bit of history here.
• 11:16
  A few weeks earlier, the board, late November, suspended its directive.
• 11:22
  And this took place after the West Virginia circuit judge Michael Frobel ruled that the um the ban on religious exemptions had substantially burdened the religious exercise of parents who had filed for religious exemptions and filed suit against the board over its stance.
• 11:46
  So a few weeks earlier, the board said, okay, we're gonna suspend our ban on religious exemptions.
• 11:52
  The state Supreme Court comes along, they pause that lower court's order, and now we've got West Virginia coming back and say, yeah, you know, we're gonna well, we're gonna put a ban again.
• 12:04
  The district judge here said the policy of not accepting religious exemption violated a state religious freedom law from 23.
• 12:18
  And he ordered the board and local boards not to enforce its policy against families that have sought or are seeking religious exemptions.
• 12:28
  Religious exemptions to mandated vaccines.
• 12:33
  And so here's what the US Virginia Supreme Court then said in regard to Froble's ruling.
• 12:41
  Upon consideration and review, the court is of the opinion.
• 12:47
  And uh grants the petitioners a motion to stay.
• 12:52
  Enforcement of the circuit courts November 26th, finding effect, conclusion of law and order granting permanent injunction and relief, and any further proceedings in circuit court are stayed pending resolution of this petition for a writ of prohibition.
• 13:11
  All right, which just fancy speak for uh we are going to uh we're gonna pause this judge's decision.
• 13:22
  We're gonna put a pause on it.
• 13:25
  So of this state supreme court action, the West Virginia Board of Education said that the reinstated ban will be in effect until the Supreme Court issues further guidance.
• 13:39
  So we're looking to the Supreme Court here.
• 13:44
  Um what's the Supreme Court going to do?
• 13:48
  What are they going to tell us?
• 13:50
  West Virginia law, by the way, requires school students to be vaccinated against a whole host of things, chickenpox, measles, you know, the whole list.
• 14:01
  And the law outlines exemptions for medical reasons.
• 14:05
  And the board does allow those, but they are not allowing religious exemption reasons.
• 14:13
  Here's what West for West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey had to say.
• 14:19
  He he celebrated the lower court's ruling.
• 14:22
  He was in favor of the lower court saying that the ban on religious exemption is ridiculous.
• 14:32
  In other words, let's let families be exempt from vaccination based upon their deeply held religious beliefs.
• 14:41
  Okay, here's what he said.
• 14:43
  Uh, in order that state officials have to have to allow religious exemption to require vaccines.
• 14:49
  Our office is currently reviewing the order, he said.
• 14:53
  Uh, whether we prevail in the courts or prevail with the legislature, West Virginia will ultimately join the other 45 states that protect and defend religious liberty and will no longer be such an outlier on vaccine policy.
• 15:08
  So he's making note here of that.
• 15:11
  Uh there are 45 states.
• 15:14
  45 out of the 50 that allow for religious exemption when it comes to vaccine mandates.
• 15:24
  And this was a this was a big thing when we were in 2020.
• 15:30
  It was huge, and there were many institutions, educational and otherwise, that were refusing this um that were refusing any any type of of religious mandate uh in terms of vaccines.
• 15:49
  So here we are.
• 15:50
  We've got uh we've got the state supreme court in West Virginia saying we're gonna put a pause on this, and we're gonna wait and see what the Supreme Court has to say about it.
• 16:00
  We're gonna wait to see what the nine, the nine or writers in black, how are they going to respond?
• 16:06
  Well, it didn't take the nine long.
• 16:09
  It did not take the the nine long to interject their thoughts and their opinions.
• 16:16
  And this came about uh in a in a New York school vaccine mandate case.
• 16:22
  And I want to get to this uh I'm on the other side of the break because it is um it's uh it's interesting.
• 16:32
  It um it paves the way uh to to support and celebrate what our founders gave us in the Bill of Rights, specifically in this First Amendment.
• 16:45
  It paves the way it supports supports and and paves the way beautifully.
• 16:50
  So I want to get into that on the other side of the break.
• 16:53
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  Now is our time, my fellow America outlawed.news, liberty and justice for all.
• 20:37
  Before we get to this case out of New York, which very intriguing, very much is in support of religious rights.
• 20:51
  Yesterday was an anniversary that I just I don't like to miss.
• 20:58
  You know, we have annual anniversaries around here in history class.
• 21:02
  We have annual history classes, but yesterday, of course, was a Sunday.
• 21:06
  We're not on the air on Sundays.
• 21:08
  I mean, we are in podcast, I guess.
• 21:10
  We're on 24-7 in podcast.
• 21:13
  But uh this show, the Dean's List plays on the America Out Loud Talk Radio Network Monday through Friday at 2 p.m.
• 21:22
  And so we're not on Saturday and Sunday.
• 21:24
  Some other great shows were on at 2 p.m.
• 21:26
  I think McCullough.
• 21:28
  The McCullough report might be on at 2 p.m.
• 21:30
  on weekends.
• 21:33
  So on weekends, from time to time, we might have a history class that we miss.
• 21:39
  And this is one of those.
• 21:41
  It was December 14th, Sunday.
• 21:45
  Was the anniversary of the loss of one of the greatest men that not only one of the greatest men America has ever known, but one of the greatest men the world has ever known.
• 21:59
  It would have been December 14th, 1799.
• 22:07
  George Washington passed away at his beloved Mount Fernand.
• 22:14
  And he was only 67 years old, which is just to think that we lost him at 67.
• 22:26
  You know, others again at the time.
• 22:29
  The age of an adult male, the average age, we are told was 33.
• 22:35
  So we got some extra years out of him, but other men were living into their, you know, well into their 70s and 80s.
• 22:45
  So we we lost him too young.
• 22:49
  Two days after he uh was out and asleep in a snowstorm, checking out his his farm, you know, checking fences, checking the land, checking the animals, checking the property.
• 23:02
  And he came in and he was gone two days later.
• 23:06
  Congress asked Virginia statesman Henry Lee.
• 23:10
  They called him Henry Lighthorse Harry Lee.
• 23:13
  Congress asked Lee to eulogize Washington, our nation's hero.
• 23:20
  And Lee's words about Washington have endured over centuries, two centuries.
• 23:28
  Um school children probably still I don't know about today if public school kids are reciting his eulogy.
• 23:37
  I mean, it's something we study here because it's it's so well written, it's so well done.
• 23:44
  Here's a piece of it.
• 23:46
  He said, first in a war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
• 23:52
  He was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.
• 23:58
  That that that right there, that sentence first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, it's classic.
• 24:06
  Classic.
• 24:07
  Love the alliteration of the the repetition of what he's first in.
• 24:14
  Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere.
• 24:19
  It's interesting that he he uses the word temperate, meaning self-control, because it was it was Henry Lighthorse, Harry Lee, who was telling this story to George and Martha once of this um comments that a painter had made about George's temper.
• 24:38
  And how he had a he had an extreme temper, I'm paraphrasing.
• 24:41
  He was hot at it.
• 24:43
  And before Henry Lee could finish, Martha said, Oh, that that's just that's not so.
• 24:50
  I don't think that's the case.
• 24:51
  You know, she's defending George.
• 24:54
  And then Lee went on to say that the painter uh followed that up by saying that even though he was he had a rough temper, he had it under masterful control.
• 25:04
  And of course, Washington smiled and said that he was absolutely correct.
• 25:09
  His sentiments were accurate.
• 25:11
  He did have a temper, but he had it under masterful control.
• 25:15
  So here in his eulogy, Lee is you know, describing him pious, just humane, and temperate.
• 25:22
  He was under control, and it's true.
• 25:25
  He was under he operated with great self-control.
• 25:32
  Lee continues, and sincere.
• 25:35
  Uniformed, dignified, and commanding.
• 25:38
  His example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects that example lasting.
• 25:45
  Correct throughout.
• 25:47
  Vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand.
• 25:52
  You just you have to love this.
• 25:55
  I just love the language.
• 26:00
  Vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand.
• 26:06
  The purity of his private character gave the hang on, I gotta, no, I gotta, I gotta read this correctly.
• 26:14
  The purity of his private character gave fulgence to his public virtues.
• 26:20
  Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.
• 26:24
  It's true.
• 26:26
  Uh all of these things about him were true, not because he said them about himself, but because those around him said this about him.
• 26:38
  Here's what uh Thomas Jefferson had to say about his character.
• 26:43
  His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order.
• 26:49
  His penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon or Locke.
• 26:56
  As far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder.
• 27:01
  He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmness on concern.
• 27:07
  Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration was maturely weighted, refraining if you saw a doubt.
• 27:20
  But when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed, his integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I've ever known.
• 27:32
  It may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a great man.
• 27:41
  I like this that Jefferson said his greatest feature was was his care his greatest character feature was prudence.
• 27:54
  Never acting until every circumstance, every consideration was maturely weighted.
• 28:00
  And a lot of people came at Washington for this, that he um they they called it indecisiveness.
• 28:07
  Matter of fact, this is what prompted his his aide, Joseph Reed, to write a letter to his second in command, second or third in command.
• 28:22
  Charles Lee.
• 28:24
  Uh at the time, I think he might have been third in command.
• 28:26
  I don't know.
• 28:26
  I don't know if he was third and second, third or second at the time of the letter, but Joseph Reed writes this letter to Charles Lee and complains of Washington's indecisiveness.
• 28:38
  And here, Jefferson, Jefferson didn't call it indecisiveness, he called it prudence that Washington weighed every single matter.
• 28:49
  Uh never acting until every circumstance, every consideration was maturely weighed.
• 28:57
  Refraining if he saw doubt, but when once decided, going through with his purpose, and others referred to it as indecisiveness, but Jefferson aptly and accurately called it what it was.
• 29:16
  It was prudence.
• 29:18
  He was weighing the consequences.
• 29:21
  So there's a just little mini history class.
• 29:25
  Is that okay?
• 29:26
  Can we just drop little mini history classes throughout?
• 29:29
  I mean, we just did, so uh, this is an important one.
• 29:33
  It's a fun one.
• 29:34
  It's an important one because it it describes one of our one of our favorite men, absolutely one of our favorites.
• 29:42
  All right, so let's get back to the matter at hand here.
• 29:44
  We are celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the uh Bill of Rights.
• 29:50
  I not the signing, but the ratification of the Bill of Rights, making it a thing, making it indeed the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
• 30:01
  So with this backdrop here of this date in history, we have the West Virginia state supreme court allowing the a ban on religious exemption for vaccines, allowing this that the ban of religious exemptions to move forward until the Supreme Court made a decision.
• 30:28
  So it didn't take the Supreme Court long.
• 30:31
  As it turns out, the Supreme Court is considering, was considering a case known as Miller v.
• 30:39
  McDonald.
• 30:41
  In this case, uh justices in March vacated the decision of the U.S.
• 30:54
  Court of Appeals.
• 31:02
  The U.S.
• 31:02
  Court of Appeals made a decision in March for the circuit court, which found that the legislation out of New York banning religious exemptions to vaccination requirement was neutral on its face and did not target or uh affirmatively prohibit religious practices.
• 31:23
  This is the Court of Appeals decision in March.
• 31:27
  So here just the other day, a couple days after the West Virginia state Supreme Court allowed the ban on religious exemptions to continue, the Supreme Court's come along and they've said, you know, um, we're gonna vacate a recent ruling from the U.S.
• 31:47
  Court of Appeals on this New York's uh, you know, that this New York ban on religious exemption to school vaccine mandates.
• 31:55
  I mean, that that's what we're talking about here.
• 31:59
  Uh so the the justices, interestingly, they directed the court of appeals to reconsider their ruling in light of the Supreme Court's decision out of Mahmood v.
• 32:13
  Taylor, this Supreme Court ruling back in June.
• 32:18
  The Mahmoud decision is where the justices sided with parents who wanted the ability to opt their children out of interacting with books in school that promote lesbian gay, you know, and that that type of lifestyle.
• 32:35
  But we have parents that that sued the school district, Montgomery County, Maryland, because of religious exemptions.
• 32:45
  They they came at it from the standpoint that, hey, we have deeply held religious beliefs and teaching our kids about uh homosexuality is not among them.
• 32:56
  We don't want to raise our kids to be gay.
• 33:02
  That's not what we're interested in.
• 33:04
  And so the Supreme Court said, yeah, you you have according to the First Amendment, you have the right to freely express your religious beliefs, and that can apply to uh other institutions that would be prohibiting that expression.
• 33:23
  And if public schools are mandating that your children sit in on classes where stories are read about the promotion of a homosexual lifestyle, that can be prohibiting your religious expression.
• 33:39
  And so, and the the Supreme Court then is telling the Court of Appeals hey, you've got to reconsider your ban on vaccine uh uh exemptions for religious beliefs based upon the decision we made in Mahmood v.
• 34:01
  Taylor, which had nothing to do with with vaccines and mandates, it had everything to do with religious expression.
• 34:08
  I mean, that's what we're talking about here.
• 34:11
  We're talking about the right to religiously express yourself, to worship as you see fit and to raise your kids in that environment as you see fit.
• 34:22
  So, and and again, in the uh Mahmood case, the majority concluded that the Maryland County Board of Education violated the religious rights of these parents by introducing books into the county's curriculum, and then later telling the parents that they couldn't remove their children from these classrooms where the stories were read.
• 34:48
  Uh, here's what uh Alito wrote for the majority in that case, pointing to a previous Supreme Court ruling against a Wisconsin law that prohibited Amish parents from withdrawing their children from public school after eighth grade.
• 35:05
  Alito said that a government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.
• 35:27
  Uh and Amish people are the litigants in this case here in the Miller case in New York.
• 35:33
  They challenged New York's 2019 law, which removed the ability of parents to seek and receive religious exemptions to the vaccines required for school attendance.
• 35:45
  The only exemptions currently allowed in New York are on medical grounds, and they require a doctor's certification.
• 35:54
  The Amish litigants said in their lawsuit that New York's repeal of religious exemption violated their constitutional rights, including their right under the U.S.
• 36:08
  Constitution's First Amendment.
• 36:12
  So in 2024, U.S.
• 36:14
  District Judge Elizabeth Wolford ruled in favor of New York officials, citing second circuit court decision that upheld Connecticut's refusal to allow religious exemptions.
• 36:29
  The second circuit then upheld Wolford, finding that even in some New York legislators, uh finding that even if some New York legislators offered statements indicating the religious exemption repeal was motivated by discrimination, there's no evidence that a sizable portion of lawmakers did so.
• 36:53
  Many legislators offered statements supporting religious freedom, and about 40% of them voted against the repeal.
• 37:02
  This is according to the appeals court.
• 37:20
  In part because medical exemptions require annual recertification.
• 37:51
  New York officials told the court in a brief that under well-established free exercise principles, the presence of a single limited medical exemption to a vaccine requirement does not require the state to provide a blanket religious exemption from vaccination.
• 38:10
  The Amish community in New York wants to be left alone to live out their faith, just like they have for 200 years.
• 38:18
  This is Kelly Shacklford, she's the president and chief counsel for first liberty.
• 38:24
  And they're representing the Amish here.
• 38:26
  And she's saying, look, they just want to be left alone, leave them alone.
• 38:30
  She continued and said, who is the authority over our children?
• 38:34
  Their parents or government bureaucrats.
• 38:37
  Ultimately, this case will affect every American, their religious freedoms and the authority of every parent to raise their children according to their faith.
• 38:47
  So just as if they were responding to West Virginia, the Supreme Court comes along and they have said to the Court of Appeals, look, you've got to reconsider this based upon our decision in Mahmood, which again had nothing to do with vaccine mandates, but it had everything to do with religious liberties.
• 39:09
  You have to reconsider your ruling based upon the First Amendment, ultimately is what they're saying here.
• 39:22
  If we allowed it to happen, if we just rolled over and allowed a particular element in this country to run roughshod over religious liberties, they would do it in a heartbeat.
• 39:37
  You would not be allowed, you would not have a single religious liberty if if they had it, uh if they had their way.
• 39:47
  And if we did not have the gumption and the courage and the wherewithal to stand up against them.
• 39:53
  And I'm telling you, a day is coming when the religious liberty of public school teachers.
• 40:00
  Will be granted back to them again.
• 40:01
  It's coming.
• 40:02
  We're gonna get there.
• 40:04
  If if we see a case, go to this Supreme Court.
• 40:08
  It's my prediction that I think that they would rule in favor of historic religious liberties.
• 40:19
  There's historic evidence that we have had prayer in public schools well from the beginning of time right up until 1962.
• 40:29
  1962, 63.
• 40:32
  Now all of a sudden it became unconstitutional.
• 40:34
  If it gets there, I do think that this Supreme Court would uh would would treat it correctly.
• 40:41
  All right, we're gonna get into one more case on the other side of this break.
• 40:44
  This is coming out of Virginia, where the Department of Justice is suing a Virginia school board over their gender ideology policy.
• 40:54
  Again, this pertains to the First Amendment.
• 40:57
  Okay, we'll pick it up on the other side.
• 40:59
  You're listening to the dean's list on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
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  Not just your first time ordering it.
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  Every single time you you are on subscription, every time this thing comes to you, you're gonna get 20% off.
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  So it occurred to me that you might not be on subscription or or maybe you've not tried any of the wellness company products.
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  As a matter of fact, the other morning, excuse me, Cindy said, Do you think that?
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  Because I talk about my immune boosting regimen on here often.
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  She said, Do you think it's this the spike detox that you've stayed so uh healthy this cold and flu season?
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  All right, I want to I want to go to this case in New York.
• 45:33
  I'm sorry, not New York.
• 45:35
  We went to New York last segment.
• 45:36
  Let's go to Virginia.
• 45:38
  The DOJ is suing a a Loudo the Loudoun County School Board, alleging that the district violated the constitutional rights of two Christian boys, two male students, because the district enforced a policy that mandates compliance with gender ideology.
• 46:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:02
  The complaint filed in federal court uh states that the policy, the Loudoun County School Board policy discriminates against students based on their religious views.
• 46:23
  The policy ensures all individuals in the school system must adhere to the district's definition of gender identity, including their definition of how that identity utilizes restrooms and locker rooms.
• 46:39
  Here's what Harme Dillon had to say about it.
• 46:42
  Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
• 46:47
  Loudoun County's decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality.
• 47:00
  So this shouldn't even be.
• 47:02
  I mean, it should be.
• 47:03
  It should be definitely a religious expression.
• 47:07
  It should also be an uh an expression of just uh accuracy intellectual accuracy, common sense.
• 47:18
  So here's here's some background.
• 47:21
  And this background, by the way, is probably gonna drive you baddie.
• 47:25
  It's gonna make you angry.
• 47:26
  According to the filing, a female student at Stonebridge High School exploited the policy when she had access to the boys' locker room and she made audio and video recordings of male students.
• 47:42
  Two boys who happen to be Christian objected, pointing toward their faith-based desire to use pronouns aligned with biological sex and maintaining sex-separated facilities.
• 47:55
  The Justice Department stepped in and said that school officials determined the boys' religious practice violated school policy.
• 48:05
  I don't think that's in the First Amendment.
• 48:07
  That religious practice cannot violate school policy.
• 48:12
  It doesn't say that.
• 48:13
  It says that Congress cannot have the amendment in front of me.
• 48:21
  What's the language there?
• 48:23
  Congress can't um uh it can't uh can you believe this that I've completely lost the First Amendment.
• 48:34
  It cannot uh dictate.
• 48:36
  Oh, I'm gonna paraphrase.
• 48:37
  Boy, I feel like Joe Biden right now.
• 48:40
  I'm gonna paraphrase.
• 48:42
  Congress can't push around.
• 48:43
  It can't make this decision for you.
• 48:45
  I almost feel like George Bush, too, where he said, fool me once.
• 48:49
  Uh you know, shame on you.
• 48:51
  Fool me twice.
• 48:52
  Don't fool me again.
• 48:53
  I laugh about that all the time, and here I am, and I can't produce the uh the first amendment.
• 49:00
  Uh nonetheless, the Justice Department said that uh the school officials determined that the boys' religious practice violated their policy.
• 49:10
  Recasting constitutionally protected activity as sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment.
• 49:18
  The students then faced a 10-day suspension and were required to participate in a support plan that the Justice Department said further undermines their religious views and their religious freedoms.
• 49:34
  10 day suspension because they objected to a girl audio and video recording in their locker room.
• 49:43
  And then they had to participate in a support plan.
• 49:49
  Oh, yeah, I know it.
• 49:51
  I I know it.
• 49:52
  I can just I can feel it.
• 49:53
  I can I can sense the angst.
• 49:57
  August 2021.
• 49:59
  The
• 50:00
  Loudoun County School Board approved the measure in the face of significant public opposition.
• 50:05
  Now remember, we're we're out of 2020, and parents are heightened anyway.
• 50:12
  And we've got uh the Biden FBI coming down and telling Loudoun County parents that they can't object at school board meetings and and they were being targeted as domestic terrorists.
• 50:26
  You remember all this.
• 50:28
  Uh so the Loudoun County Board approved the measure, requiring staff to use students' preferred pronouns and permitting access to facilities based on gender identity rather than actual biology.
• 50:43
  The policy also urged the implementation of LGBT training in single user restrooms within five years.
• 50:51
  By the time we get to five years, we're going to be trained in all this.
• 50:55
  September 28th.
• 50:57
  Uh, people protested the policy outside the district's administrative building.
• 51:04
  The policy drew legal challenges, including from a gym teacher.
• 51:09
  His name's Tanner Cross.
• 51:12
  Cross was suspended after publicly stating at a board meeting that using preferred pronouns would mean lying to the child, which he was accurately correct, by the way.
• 51:22
  He also said it would require him to sin against our God.
• 51:27
  Excuse me.
• 51:27
  And that holy smokes, that's what did it.
• 51:32
  The state, and so he was um, he was suspended.
• 51:38
  Uh a state court ordered his reinstatement.
• 51:42
  And then in November, the board settled.
• 51:45
  Again, this is 2021.
• 51:47
  This is that time frame.
• 51:48
  The school board settled, they paid 20 grand in legal fees.
• 51:52
  They expunged his suspension.
• 51:54
  Uh, and then along with other teachers, he sought an injunction against the policy, alleging it violated his free speech and his religious exercise or his expression of his um religious rights.
• 52:11
  And then a year later, no, yeah, a year later, October 22.
• 52:15
  Parents really begin to place pressure on the board to align with new state guidelines under Yuncan, because he he prior prioritize parental consent for gender affirmation and sex-based facility use.
• 52:31
  And uh this whole thing began to grow, it began to blossom, it began to burgeon.
• 52:38
  Um there were that there was distress.
• 52:43
  Students had distress when girls entered boys' bathrooms.
• 52:48
  Uh, and they they didn't want it.
• 52:51
  Uh they didn't because they're now they're in a position of being accused of sexual harassment, no matter what they do.
• 53:00
  It is a lose-lose policy.
• 53:04
  So here we are, the Department of Justice is suing Loudoun County.
• 53:08
  And now we're here, we're in we're about to turn the the calendar to 2026.
• 53:13
  This is 2021 when this thing uh came into play.
• 53:19
  These these poor people in Virginia, Loudoun County.
• 53:22
  If you attend a Loudoun County public school, I am sorry.
• 53:27
  You should have probably pulled out a long time ago because they they do not care about your First Amendment rights.
• 53:34
  And I said this in the previous segment.
• 53:36
  If we don't uh if we don't stop pushing back, or if let me say it better, if we stop pushing back and if we just roll over and and we don't put up a fight, not only will we not only will we lose that First Amendment right of free religious expression, which we've already lost it in some places, by the way, because we didn't push back, because people just rolled over and they let it happen.
• 54:12
  But it'll be gone completely.
• 54:15
  Teachers don't have the right to religiously express themselves in public school.
• 54:21
  That right's been taken from them because the Supreme Court equated them to be Congress.
• 54:26
  Congress shall not establish a religion.
• 54:29
  It came back to me.
• 54:33
  My Joe Biden lapse is gone.
• 54:35
  Congress shall not establish a religion.
• 54:38
  That's what it says.
• 54:40
  And the Supreme Court in the 60s equated a teacher praying with Congress establishing a religion, even though a teacher is not Congress.
• 54:53
  She's a public school, she's a government employee.
• 54:56
  That makes her Congress.
• 54:58
  No, I'm sorry, it doesn't.
• 55:00
  Doesn't make her Congress.
• 55:01
  She's not establishing a religion by expressing herself religiously.
• 55:07
  But the Supreme Court stripped her of that right.
• 55:10
  And that and that's what I said in the previous segment.
• 55:13
  This Supreme Court that we're operating under right now will give that right back to her or to him or whoever that teacher is.
• 55:20
  If a case reaches the bench, if it reaches their bench, and they agree to take it.
• 55:26
  I firmly believe that this court will do it.
• 55:29
  I think they've demonstrated their proclivity to historical accuracy.
• 55:36
  And somebody just needs to have some courage.
• 55:38
  Somebody in the public system needs to have some courage to uh to pull a coach Kennedy.
• 55:45
  Coach Kennedy was the start.
• 55:47
  He gave it to us, and now it needs to happen in the classroom.
• 55:51
  Am I am I promoting something I shouldn't be?
• 55:53
  I don't think I am.
• 55:55
  I would like to see our religious liberties given back to us completely and wholeheartedly across the board.
• 56:03
  All right, uh, my friends are up against it.
• 56:05
  I love history class.
• 56:07
  It's one of my favorite things to do around here.
• 56:10
  And we explore a lot of history on Substack.
• 56:14
  So if you've not subscribed to the Substack yet, go do it.
• 56:17
  You can subscribe for free.
• 56:20
  Uh and if you want to be a paid subscriber, you can do that too.
• 56:23
  It's cheap.
• 56:24
  It's only eight bucks a month, but the the paid subscribers, they get uh some extra weekend historical detail that the freebies don't get.
• 56:36
  So there's there's definitely some extra stuff on there for paid subscribers.
• 56:41
  So I encourage you to go to go to Substack, check it out, see what we've got uh going on over there.
• 56:47
  And just, you know, I'm I'm grateful that you're a part of this audience.
• 56:51
  Thank you for um sharing the good news of this show.
• 56:55
  Thank you for supporting what we're doing at Waterbrook.
• 56:58
  If you want your money to to support things that are going to change the lives of young people now and and the country in the future, go to Waterbrook CA.org, click the support tab and get behind what we're doing over there and ultimately encourage your friends and family to get on the dean's list.
• 57:17
  Let's unite to renovate the age.